After a brief complaint, Ash sighed and shook his head helplessly, "Forget it. Just tell me what happened. I believe you're not the kind of bad kid who hurts people for no reason."
"Um…", Now that she had the chance, Sense instead looked troubled, as if she didn't know where to begin.
"Lernen told me… it's a way to not be forgotten…"
"A way to not be forgotten?", Ash repeated, trying to understand what that meant.
"He said he wanted to take on the infamy of killing the mage in the Demon King's party. I got a bit impatient and attacked first. N-no, but! I only attacked once, and then Frieren told me that you're actually the same as Lady Serie. You're not honest with your words, but in reality you wouldn't forget, and you definitely wouldn't want to remember someone in that kind of way, so…"
Even though she felt a little embarrassed and her voice kept getting quieter, Sense still honestly explained everything.
But what she said left Ash with mixed feelings. Looking at the girl in front of him, shrinking like a child who had done something wrong, he couldn't help letting out a long sigh.
"That guy Lernen being dull and extreme is one thing, but how did you end up getting pulled by him too?"
"Sorry…"
"No, thinking about it carefully, you're also pretty slow… when you put it that way, it's not that strange."
Right after Sense apologized, he unconsciously added that.
Sense fell silent for a moment with a blank expression, then finally couldn't hold back. She pressed her lips together lightly and protested in a small voice, "Am I?"
"You really have no self-awareness at all."
"I think I'm pretty normal," Even though she said that, her gaze was still lowered.
"But didn't I already say before, I wouldn't forget you?"
"But… that's only while I'm still alive, right?", Sense muttered softly with her head lowered, a trace of loneliness flashing through her eyes.
Ash showed a bit of indulgence and helplessness as he gently stroked her messy hair, "Something too far in the future, even if you confirm it, it doesn't really mean anything, right? And when you're alive, thinking a bit ahead is fine, but for something too distant, there's no need to think about it."
"Ha!", Sense, upon hearing this, let out a sigh instead, "Lord Ash, you say I'm slow, but actually you're not much better, are you?"
"How could that be? I understand things pretty well."
"What you understand is just logic. But even I know… compared to logical thinking, girls prefer emotional promises."
"You're a girl to begin with, so it's normal for you to understand a little more than me."
"It's not just a little, it's completely… sigh! Forget it," Sense stopped halfway, then gave up arguing, turned around, and walked silently to the tea table.
With her back to him, the girl took a new cup from the cabinet beside her and, without turning her head, said, "Anyway, since you're already here… do you want to have a drink with me and chat a bit longer?"
"That's fine, but…"
"Just leave your outdoor shoes by the windowsill. Also, next time, please come through the front door. Even if you want to lecture me, if you come in properly, I'm not going to run away, right?"
"The window is convenient too."
"Please don't climb in through the window, it's too weird."
As she washed the teacup, Sense glanced back at him with a bit of helplessness and lightly glared, her tone unconsciously carrying a hint of lecturing him instead.
And knowing he lacked manners, he could only obediently follow what the owner of the room said.
Although it was already night, the two still sat by the tea table, eating snacks, reading books, and casually chatting about recent national events.
Even though he had climbed in through the window and she had scolded him a bit, during this impromptu tea gathering, Sense's tone and expression always carried a light, cheerful feeling.
The atmosphere gradually returned to how it usually was. Everything felt like a reflection of the countless times they had spent together before.
Only when the moon reached the middle of the sky did Ash leave the girl's home. Of course, he still climbed over the wall to leave, even though Sense had just reminded him to use the front door next time.
After all, he came in by climbing over the wall and through the window. If he left through the main door, it might feel strange.
Sense simply wore a helpless smile, then silently used her hair to pick up a broom and cleaned up the traces of his intrusion beneath the windowsill.
———
With Sense's matter clarified, Ash planned to go back and get some sleep.
However, the moment he returned home and opened his room door, he saw a silver-haired elf sprawled across his bed, lying in his blanket in a crooked "大" shape, sleeping soundly.
At first glance, he couldn't help but wonder if he had gone into the wrong room. He quietly stepped back and casually closed the door again.
But after looking around, he realized… this should indeed be his room.
"Did I just hallucinate?"
He muttered, then shook his head before pushing the door open again.
However, the elf inside was still lying there just fine, with no sign of disappearing.
"This girl… did she wait for me so long that she couldn't hold on and just fell asleep here?"
Staring at the elf girl who didn't notice him repeatedly opening and closing the door and was still deeply immersed in sleep, he glanced around and quickly noticed several scattered magic books beside the bed.
Frieren had always treated magic books carefully. This clearly meant she had gotten a bit annoyed from waiting too long without seeing her target. Although for someone her age to still throw a tantrum like this, Ash found it a bit hard to compliment.
But since he himself was the root cause of all this, he couldn't really complain.
"Still, would a normal girl run into a man's room? Hmm, now that I look closely, when she's asleep and not talking, she's actually, less cute."
Sitting beside her, he carefully observed the elf girl who had taken over his bed, had absolutely no sleeping posture, and even had drool at the corner of her mouth. His expression turned a bit strange halfway through speaking.
"Rather than a thousand-year-old, she's basically just like a ten-year-old brat, isn't she?", Ash couldn't help but complain while reaching out to pinch Frieren's face, not worried at all about waking her up.
Because he knew very well that unless danger triggered some alarm in her head, once Frieren fell asleep, waking her up was extremely difficult.
He grabbed her wrist and played around with it like a doll for a while… then got bored and casually tossed it back.
Picking up the book from the floor, lying back on the bed, and pushing Frieren aside a bit, he used magic to make the book float in midair and flip pages automatically, planning to spend the night reading like this.
However, as time passed bit by bit, just as he was reading with great interest, Frieren, who had terrible sleeping habits, kept changing positions. Suddenly, she turned over and directly lay on top of his chest. One of her hands even landed with a loud "smack!" right across his face.
"What is she doing?", Right when he was enjoying his reading, immersed in the ocean of knowledge, that sudden slap to the face instantly left Ash stunned.
Yet… the culprit lay on his chest, smacking her lips contentedly, then slightly shook her head and rubbed the drool clean onto him.
That left him speechless. He pressed a hand against Frieren's face and waited like that for about a minute.
"Uwa?", The lack of oxygen made Frieren suddenly open her eyes. She slapped his hand away, instantly bounced up, and glared at the culprit with grievance.
"What are you doing?"
"Is this really my fault? This is completely your problem!"
"What did I do? Wasn't I just sleeping the whole time?"
"If you were really just sleeping, I wouldn't say anything! But look… what is this on me?", He angrily sat up too, lifting his clothes and pointing at the drool marks.
"How would I know what you were doing… ugh~ so cold~"
The girl, dressed only in a pure white dress-like nightgown, hadn't even finished complaining before the cold wind blowing in from the window made her instinctively hug herself, her body trembling slightly.
Seeing this, Ash, who had still wanted to argue, shook his head in frustration, bent down to pick up the coat she had thrown by the bed, and without thinking tossed it onto her head.
Her vision was suddenly covered by her own coat. Normally, Frieren would complain a bit.
But now, driven by the cold, she hurriedly wrapped the coat tightly around herself, that urgency carrying a faint, childlike innocence.
———
After being forcibly woken up, Frieren's mind wasn't fully awake yet. After arguing with Ash for a few more lines, she sat at the edge of the bed in a slightly messy posture, her eyes half-open, showing a trace of drowsy laziness. She yawned softly and muttered a few unclear words.
Her bare shoulders, contrasted against the pure white nightgown, made her skin look even fairer. Her youthful face carried a faint blush from just waking up, like a freshly blooming peach blossom, delicate and vivid.
Her clothes were a bit disheveled, but that only added to a natural, unadorned beauty.
Her silver hair spread casually across the bed, blending with the surroundings, making this somewhat silly elf girl unconsciously reveal an unusually charming side.
"Ugh, I must've lost my mind to think this old woman is cute," Ash, standing nearby, was momentarily stunned. Then, after snapping back to his senses, he sharply sucked in a breath and slammed his head straight into the wall in front of him.
With a loud "thud!", the wall let out a dull sound, and even shook slightly.
He had wanted to knock himself into amnesia, but the wall might give out first, so he had no choice but to give up on that idea.
But before he could think of something else to say, he suddenly realized he might have just said something he shouldn't have.
Before he could come up with a remedy, the girl who had still looked drowsy now had tears welling up in her eyes. And just as he turned back in surprise…
"Waa… waa! WAAAHHH!"
The girl sitting at the edge of the bed, who had just seemed cute, suddenly twisted her expression and burst into loud crying before he could fix anything.
Tears streamed down her cheeks like they cost nothing.
The fear from back then, when Frieren cried nonstop for three days and three nights without sleep, surfaced once again in Ash's mind.
"C-calm down, Frieren! It's my fault, okay? Don't be like this, I definitely didn't mean it, believe me! I'll apologize, alright?"
He tried to comfort her, constantly patting her head, but she ignored everything and kept crying.
"I… I don't care! You always bully me! And now… now you even came into my room, woke me up, bullied me! And you even called me an old woman!", Frieren sobbed as she accused him non-stop.
"Wait… look carefully, okay? This is my room! And you were the one who slapped me first? This can only count as justified retaliation!"
"You still said I'm old!"
"I just stated the fa—Uh, I was jealous of your beauty, okay?"
"Why would a man be jealous of my beauty! Ugh~ you're just bullying me! I don't care! WAAAHHH!"
No matter how he tried to comfort her, Frieren just kept crying.
Ash even tried holding her on his lap like he had comforted Fern before, patting her head, constantly apologizing and soothing her, but Frieren still ignored everything and cried endlessly.
She didn't even care anymore about him touching her hair, acting completely like a child throwing a tantrum. Completely different from how she chased him with a broom earlier in the evening, or her usual calm demeanor.
———
The shorty elf girl cried so miserably, anyone who saw it would definitely think Ash had done something unforgivable. And before long…
"What's going on?", Awakened by the noise, Fern rushed in wearing her nightgown. The moment she saw Frieren sitting on his lap, crying loudly, she immediately looked at Ash angrily and demanded, "Lord Ash! What are you doing? Why did you make Lady Frieren cry like this?"
"You might not believe it, but I didn't do anything."
"You didn't do anything? Then how could Lady Frieren be like this?"
"Alright, maybe I did something, but all I did was press my hand on her face, block her airway, and forcibly wake her up. But that was because she wiped her drool on me first…"
He tried to argue his case, but Fern's face was full of disbelief. Looking at Frieren, who was still crying miserably, her own eyes even started to glisten slightly.
"Even if Lady Frieren was wrong first, you didn't have to go that far, right? Just scold her a bit would've been enough! I can't even imagine what you did to make Lady Frieren cry, and even… even cry like this!"
"She cried for another reason… sigh, you definitely won't believe me… but it's really just because I accidentally said she was old."
"???"
That hesitant explanation, and the final answer he gave, left Fern completely stunned.
Seeing she didn't believe him, Ash emphasized, "Really… it's really just that!"
"Do you think I'm an idiot? Even if you're lying, it should at least make sense."
Even though he spoke seriously, the truth was so ridiculous that Fern didn't even know how to begin helping him.
And it wasn't her fault. Even if it were him, if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn't have believed it either.
Now he could only sigh helplessly, resting his chin on Frieren's head, "Forget whether you believe me or not. Once she starts, she'll cry for three days and three nights, can you help take care of her? I want to go out for a bit."
The moment he said that, Frieren choked up even more and looked up at him with teary eyes, "If you try to run away! When you come back, I'll keep crying!"
"Are you a child?"
"I don't care~ who told you to call me old again… and… you said it again just now!"
"You're even counting at a time like this?"
Facing the unreasonable girl, he could only endure the headache and look at the stunned Fern for help, "Fern… do you believe me now? Can you help persuade her?"
"Even though I really don't want to help you, we can't just let Lady Frieren keep crying like this," With a bit of indulgence and helplessness, Fern pointed seriously to the spot beside him, "So please remember, tomorrow sit properly here and listen to my lecture."
"No, I just said, she'll normally cry for three days and three nights. Tomorrow you definitely won't have time."
"Please don't joke. How could a human cry for that long?"
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